The Bathrobe Knight (9 page)

“Yeah, let’s go get that done. By the way, do you want to go shopping afterwards? I just got a ton of money from selling all those Axes we looted yesterday.”

“Maybe. I didn’t see anything but Staves and Arrows in the Blacksmith’s shop. One of those Staves might be an upgrade for you?”

“Oh, heavens, no. Those things might as well be used as door stops or furniture props for all the use they would be to a Mage. We have to get our weapons from the enchantment or magic shops or they won’t do anything for our spells. Don’t you know anything about items?”

“No, not really. If we’re going, let me pay up first.” Darwin said as he got up and went to the Bartender. As soon as he got up, Kass noticed that underneath the plate there was a piece of paper hidden with only its edges sticking out.
Secret!
She looked over at Darwin chatting in an overly friendly manner with the Bartender and decided it was safe to sneak a peek at the paper.

                            Race: Unknown              **No Red-Eyed man before me.

                            Class: Unknown

                            Locked: Attributes, Sleep, Log out, Class Promotion

                            Respawning?

I was able to party with Kass but Kass is a PC human. According to what I’ve discovered the party system currently prevents humans from partying with other races. Of the other races White-Horns, Black-Wings have been seen to party with each other.

PCs don’t require food. NPCs require food. I require food. PCs don’t require sleep. NPCs require sleep. I don’t require sleep. PCs can respawn. Can I?

After a series of questions I’ve realized that most of the NPCs aren’t aware that this is a game. They seem to be capable of making mistakes and I can’t tell the difference between their emotions and the emo--

              Kass kept glancing back and forth between Darwin and the page as she read the notes.  When she saw that he was finished and heading back towards her, she slid the piece of paper back where she had found it as quickly as possible and hoped she hadn’t been noticed.  
Is he comparing himself to a NPC? No Red-Eyed man before him? What are you up to, Mr. Darwin? What’s your real secret?  
She wanted to ask him right away, but she couldn’t. She had discovered the paper by snooping when he had clearly hidden it under the plate. If she brought it up right away, he might suspect her, and she still needed him for the EXP.

              “Ready to go?” he said, trying and failing to sneak the piece of paper out from under the plate without Kass seeing. Kass smiled to herself,
Too late! I’m on to you, Mr. Bond.

              “Yeah, sure. Let’s go find Captain Elmont and turn this quest in. Maybe if we’re lucky we’ll hit 30, right?”

“It was really nice talking to you, Darwin! Please come again!” The NPC Bartender called out as Darwin left. He and Darwin must have had some amazing conversation. That was the first time Kass had seen him do anything other than pour drinks, take orders, and tell people to pay up.
Has anyone even tried talking to him before, though?

“You too, Peter, and I hope your son puts that Axe to good use. You have no idea how frustrating it was getting it.”
He gave an NPC a gift? Doesn’t he know they aren’t actually people?

“I’m sure he will. Have a good one!” As the Bartender waved them goodbye, Kass couldn’t help but think something was wrong with the whole scene. She wasn’t alone in that thought either. A few of the other PCs in the tavern gave Darwin and the Bartender, apparently named Peter, a strange look.

When they got out of the tavern, Kass tried to pry a little bit without sounding too obvious, “So, you actually talked with the NPC?”

“You don’t talk to NPCs in video games? Who will give you the quests?” he asked, glancing sideways at her as they walked. She was sure that he was smirking as he asked it.

Is he trolling me now?
“You know what I mean. He said you gave him an Bxe? Why would you give an NPC a gift?”

“Why do people buy toys for their dogs?”

“That’s not the same thing. Dogs are real. Dogs can feel emotions.”

“Is it any different than an NPC who is programmed to feel emotions? He seemed pretty happy with the Axe.” Darwin had stopped making eye contact during the conversation and was looking around. “Ah! There’s Captain Elmont.”

“You know him too?”

“Of course. He is in the military, and I was at the only bar all night. Kinda seems obvious that I’d have met him.”

Oh yeah, these games are supposed to simulate reality.
“So why didn’t you turn in the quest then?”

“Because I didn’t have my Mage to protect me if he warped me to some random battlefield. I might trust my Axe some, but I definitely feel more confident with an Ice Princess at my side.”

No one just warps people to a battlefield randomly, you idiot. Your sweet talk won’t make you any less suspicious.
“You’re just being silly. You don’t need me around to protect you from the big, old, scary, bad men” she said, emphasizing the last part with a little girl’s voice.

“If you say so.”

“I do. Now turn it in, scaredy cat!”

• You have been invited to Darwin’s Party. Would you like to
  Accept
  or
  Reject?
  

              Woops! I totally forgot to invite him. Accept!
“Good thinking, Bathrobe Knight. After all, we can’t have you not getting EXP from all of my kills.” Kass started to wonder if she was poking him too much. His grumpy face had returned again.

              “Elmont. How are you?” Darwin opened the conversation with the Captain up before Kass could say anything.

              “What, boy, didn’t get enough of my company last night at the tavern?” The cantankerous officer had been busy organizing some of the other NPCs when Darwin and Kass interrupted him.

              “You know how things are. I thought I would introduce a struggling old man to a young girl, seeing as how you haven’t been able to meet one lately.” Darwin smiled at Kass while he said it, a smug ‘if you troll me, I’ll troll you’ smirk back on his face.

              “Oh, oh! Boy, you’ve brought me one above my paygrade. I don’t think I can match up to a girl with curves like that or a face so pretty. Bring me one a little more simple and a little less beautiful next time. I know my limits!”
Ha! This old man knows his place,
Kass thought
.
Even so, he had still made her blush more than any of the guys who had hit on her during her final year of college. “Anyways, Darwin, what do you got for me? Gonna consider joining the ranks?”

              “No, we’re here for a quest turn-in,” Kass said, deciding she didn’t like to be talked around too much and needed to take control of the conversation.

              “Oh yeah, I knew you looked familiar. You’re the girl who joined up with the 8th Legion before it was lost, may they rest in peace. The quest was to kill Minotaurs. Let me check your quest record to see what I owe you.” He paused for a moment as he looked at the two of them, and then his jaw made an attempt to connect with the floor. “Little missy, Darwin, I can’t thank you enough with words for what you’ve done. We all hated those White-Horns after what they did to the 8th Legion, but for you two to risk your lives to do this much. Thank you. This is all I have to offer you two, but please take it with my sincerest gratitude.”

              “The honor was mine, Elmont, I’m just glad I could be of assistance to the town,” Darwin said with a face that would have almost convinced Kass he was serious--if it weren’t for the fact he was talking to an NPC.
Is he trying to trigger a special event, or is he actually one of those role-players? He’s kind of too good looking to be a role-player, and his neck is way too devoid of beard.
Kass froze. Did she just think that Darwin was good looking?
Nope. Nope nope nope.

              “Yeah, the honor was mine,” she said in the same fake cheesy manner that Darwin did. Kass was certain that Darwin knew something about the game that she didn’t. That’s why he had so many notes on that paper.
If only I had had more time to read it all, I’d know what he was up to.

             
“You two are truly great citizens. For your deed as well as your concern for our people, I’ve got a reward. I normally wouldn’t give these away no matter how many White-Horn’s someone killed, but I think you two have proven to be more than just disrespectful adventurers.  So . . . here. One for each of you according to your abilities,” he said, handing each one of them a Ring. The one he handed Kass was a beautiful white gold Ring with a series of tiny sapphires lining its edge.
Jackpot! He did know something.
“These Rings are usually only given to the elite Knights and Mages to aid in their service of the Kingdom. Wear them well.”

              Kass brought up her inventory screen as quick as she could and pulled out the ring. ‘Ring of the Ice Queen. Grants the wearer: + 10 vitality, + 10 Spirit, + 10 Concentration.’
What? This is insane.
Kass looked at Darwin with curious eyes to see what he got. If hers was a Frost Mage’s Ring, what would a Novice’s Ring be?
I bet it’s Ring of the Bathrobe Knight with +10 to Spoon throwing and +5 to flap protection.

              “Oh, and heroes,” Elmont continued, “be careful to avoid people dressed in all black. I’ve heard a lot of talk about people being killed lately. We rely on those peoples’ hard work and contributions to keep the town running. It would be nice if someone could do something about the problem, but we simply don’t have the resources to spend on gearing up new Guards to protect the people. Not since our silver ore mine was overrun, anyway.”

• You have received a quest from Captain Elmont to clear the silver ore mine. Would you like to Accept or Reject?
  

             
Accept. Darwin, you better not expect us to go straight there and skip shopping though.

Robert:

Walking into the office before noon was something that had a strangely eerie feel to Robert. Before the project began he had certainly been working more regular business hours than he did now. Regardless, the long nights over the past few weeks as everything pushed closer and closer to the release date, and the patch containing the final AI update, meant he barely ever saw the place before noon. He couldn't help but feel that he was out of place somehow. Like he was stepping into a girlfriend's dorm room when he was in college. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary, certainly no bras hanging from computer chairs that he could see (the guys would wet themselves if there were). He just felt like he somehow didn't quite fit in.  Like he didn't belong there, that something was off.

          Even after he made his way to his work station--luckily, without having to talk to anyone-- he still couldn't quite shake the feeling. Upon quick review of his area, however, he couldn't find any reason for the feeling to persist. Everything was just as he had left it a few hours ago, and his slightly OCD personality was thankful for it.
"I've gotta learn to get some sleep. I must be getting paranoid,"
he thought to himself as he looked around.
"There's certainly no fluffy pink carpeting going to appear here."

          Pulling his laptop out of its travel bag he quickly set it up on the desk and connected it to the Ethernet cable dangling from a hole in the wall. He had to figure out what in the world his daughter had been talking about. A bathrobe and a spoon? Last he had heard, the development for most of the world had been put to a temporary stop. Anything that was still in development, and there was a ton, wasn't planned on being implemented for months to come yet.  And, as best his memory served him, though it was still a little hazy through a sleep-clouded brain, none of that had included anything about bathrobes and spoons. Christmas hats and party favors had been sent out as gag-gifts over the holidays, a normal part of the planned festivities in any game, but none of that was supposed replace or preempt normal starting gear.

          "
Where to begin?"
He rapped his fingers on the desk trying to discern the best possible place to start looking for what could have explained this. The obvious solution was to chalk it up to his daughter having exaggerated or outright lied. But neither of those were character traits that had ever seemed to manifest themselves in Kass. She had always been forthcoming with anything she had to tell him and never really had the propensity for making up outright lies. Well, with the exception of a few boys she had dated in high school, but that was to be expected of any teenage girl and had been years ago before she went off to college. Better yet, what reason did she have to exaggerate or lie? He knew that she had been up most of the night playing the game, and seemed to be getting really immersed into the experience, but there wasn't any reason to make up something like that. She had seemed so certain about it, too.
"So where to start?"
he questioned again.

          Picking up the phone, he dialed a short series of numbers that would connect him to Gary's desk on the other side of the building. Gary was one of the lead designers for the game, and if anything had been added in at the last minute, he would certainly be the one to know about it.